


A Roman Walks into a Bar

by SanderRohde



Category: Nimona (Webcomic), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: (also implied) - Freeform, (implied) - Freeform, Emile Picani is a researcher scientist type, Logan Sanders is a knight, M/M, Remus has only a metaphysical existence, Remy is a bartender, Trans Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Trans Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Virgil Sanders is an anti-hero, Wrote this at Yoga, alcohol mentioned, demon!Remus
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-14
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:42:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21794752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SanderRohde/pseuds/SanderRohde
Summary: Roman is very much a fan of the antihero Virgil.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Dr. Emile Picani & Sleep | Remy Sanders, Dr. Emile Picani/Sleep | Remy Sanders
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	1. Remy is not drunk enough for this

**Author's Note:**

> This is next week's fanfiction.

It was musty and felt overly creepy to even be close to it. Roman was only there because of a rumor. A rumor that the greatest villain of all was there, and had been frequenting the place for a while.   
Sure he was under 21, but no one really cared about age limits where he lived anyway. It was both a blessing and a curse. 

He held his head high and he walked right in past the guard at the door. His cloak fell back in his face as he walked, determined to meet his villain mentor. 

“Hi! I have heard that a ‘Virgil’ frequents here?”

He almost screamed it, but he had some sense not to. 

The barkeep nodded, sunglasses falling further down their face as they did so. 

“Yeah….mmmm….He’s at that table.”

The barkeep lazily smacked at their sunglasses.

Roman turned to the rest of the room. 

“I’m sorry, which table?”

The barkeep pointed a shaky finger. 

“Uhhh….that one.”

Roman turned towards that table. He didn’t know his idol had purple hair! Well, actually he did. He had his hair in the exact shade. 

Virgil looked at the intruder, then gestured for him to sit.   
At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing. He just couldn’t really tell. Carefully walking over to the small table, Roman let go of his one breath he had been holding since he had gotten in. He dramatically walked towards his seat, then pulled the chair out from that side of the table. Sitting, he put on his best ‘unfazed’ smile and took a few deep breaths. He couldn’t believe he was sitting there, and felt he was privileged to even meet his elusive idol. 

Virgil spoke, snark evident. 

“Y’know, I’m not paying you for this.”


	2. At the lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil gets a visitor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my Discord peeps (yes, you!) Hope you enjoy!

Virgil sat on the side of his bunk bed waiting for morning. None of them actually truly slept. They didn’t need to. Virgil had actually invented a mech that, every once and awhile, would inject him with caffeine. It never worked, but he had gone months at a time without sleeping, which was something.

The other bunk used to be filled with memories, but the guy had left to become a knight, of all things. Actually, he knew why. He had stolen the bed. He had once wanted to become a knight as well, but they needed a scapegoat. He became a villain. 

The other day, a fan had come up to him and tried to get him to talk and get him to be the kind of villain he thought Virgil needed to be. 

Virgil was angry. Logan still had more fans than he did. Hate was not it, more jealousy, really. 

“Logan...why did you do this to me?” he mumbled. The window blew open, and the draft made him glad he had a cloak on. 

Through the window came a familiar face. 

“Thought you needed some company.”

Virgil was now directing his weekly vent towards Roman. He yelled at where the voice was coming from. 

“Sorry, no solicitors”

Roman wasn’t deterred. In fact, it only served as a challenge to him as he crawled further up the wall and seemed to change his shadow a bit as he did so in order to get through the narrow passage that wasn’t really a passage. 

“So, this is what Virgil Nightborne’s lab looks like, huh? Though it’d be more dramatic.” 

Virgil was too tired for that (he would never admit it), so he just pointed silently at Roman before mumbling out “Get- please- don’t- this place is dangerous…”

Roman was already exploring. 

The room was beautiful. Virgil had spent a lot of time placing each piece and screw, screw Logan for making him make his dream lab, every surface covered with some sort of blueprint for his latest ‘diabolical plan,’ as King Remus called it, the rest covered with conductors and steam, steel and springs, various junk that wasn’t junk. Not to him, anyway. 

“Don’t follow all of my rules, why don’t you?”

Roman picked up a picture on the wall. 

“Is that Logan Galahad?”

Virgil looked pointedly at Roman. 

“Don’t you ever speak that name again.”

Roman almost dropped the frame, but was nice enough to place it on one of the cushions on the unmade bed. 

“Sorry...sorry. Hey, do you have any food?”

Virgil started walking toward his fridge. He never really opened it, was scared of it, really, but his fridge was one of his ‘altered appliances,’ so he thought of it safe enough. The cold got worse in the room as he inhaled the fumes, coughed a bit, then decided to close it, and pick up a box of Deep Fried Junk from the adjacent cabinet. He braved the fridge again (was an old fridge) to pull out two Fairy Princess Cotton Candy Coolers. 

Sighing loudly, Virgil gestured toward the intruder to  
sit on the couch and watch anime. 

The anime cut out for an emergency message. 

“Has anyone seen this man?”

The screen showed an outline of a shadowy figure at a library. All of the books were pulled from the shelves by the figure, who then pulled out a stick of what looked like dynamite. 

“Witnesses say said figure is working with legendary villain Nightborne. What they are up to is up to speculation.”

The scene then changed to something different , in which was shown an explosion, and a more visible figure. He had Roman’s eyes. 

Looking over at Roman happily and obliviously slurping at the dregs of the sugary drink made him want to vomit. 

After an hour of protests, Roman was soon asleep, and his sleeping figure changed to the form of a shadowy monkey, with a pair of eyes only he could see soul in. It then shifted to a form of a raven, in which form Virgil quietly picked up and placed on the top bunk, a bit reluctant, and pulled the picture off the bottom one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is based around basic beats from a story I read called Nimona. Totally recommend. My type of story, too.


	3. Origins (1/2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just some origins. Don’t want to give away too much.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone else catch the TS livestream? I did!

After an hour of protests, Roman was soon asleep, and his sleeping figure changed to the form of a shadowy monkey, with a pair of eyes only he could see soul in. It then shifted to a form of a raven, in which form Virgil quietly picked up and placed on the top bunk, a bit reluctant, and pulled the picture off the bottom one. 

17 years earlier…

“Can you believe it, Lo? I am going to be a real knight!”

His roommate stared at him. He knew that neither of them really wanted to be a ‘real knight.’ Virgil wrote poetry, and, as for him, he liked spending most of his time in the library researching ways to make the kingdom a better place, which he was pretty sure Virgil also did a fair bit of.

Not that either of them had a choice in the matter, and not that either of them cared to dismiss opportunity either. They were all too happy to do something for their kingdom, no matter how different it was from what they actually wanted to do. 

“Yes I can believe it. Better you than me, to be perfectly honest.”

Virgil replies, carefully, but with a nice honest tinge to it. 

“You know we orphans don’t put anyone down, especially ourselves. You are a rule follower, something I never fully have been. You’d be perfect for the job, to be able to get out of this place a knight.”

Logan responds with a small but noticeable smile, and Virgil catches genuine feeling in it, something Logan rarely shows. They embrace in a hug. It’d be their last hug on good terms. 

————————————————————————

My name is Emile Picani, and I believe I’ve summoned a demon. For a second, I thought that demon was my son, but I then realized I don’t have a son, and never had. Perhaps I happened to want a son so bad that he showed up. I feel stole from-he is not your son, he probably never will be your son, Emile. Why would you attach yourself to this… this demon? 

The demon smiled in his young form(he was about 8) , his red hair dramatically flowing behind him. 

“ I will save you from whatever is bothering you, young citizen!”

The demon’s hair slowly shifted a shade of red, somehow even more fiery than the first shade. 

I look in the eyes of the demon. That is my first mistake. 

I lean in and hug the demon. I feel the urge to… name him. 

He was truly cute, and I had always wanted a son, after all. 

The demon’s (Roman? I had decided to go with Roman) eyes slowly softened, his head tilting up towards me. 

“You are… nice. No one’s ever been nice to me before like that. What’s your name?”

He holds out his hand. I take a deep breath, then take it. 

“Emile. Dr. Emile Picani, if you want my full name. To be honest, I only ever use my full name at work. And I hope you don’t mind. I assumed you didn’t have a name before, so I named you. Your name is Roman.”

The demon responded, eyes full of tears I didn’t even know he could shed. His skin got a tiny bit more glowy, which would be alarming if he wasn’t a demon being given the benefit of the doubt. 

“No one has ever given me a name I liked before. I’ve been called rascal, scamp, thief, demon… never something concrete like Roman. I was kicked out of my last house. The people there were pretty sure a demon had replaced their son. They called me… (he takes a breath) Nimona. Now, I have no idea what they are talking about. The fact that I’m a boy is easy to understand. But demon?”

I look at Roman again. 

“But… I summoned you! How would I do that? If you weren’t a demon, I mean, son.”

He looks me in the eye, meeting my gaze. 

“I have no idea. All I know is who I am. The demon, if there even is such a thing, has agreed with me on most of what I want, so I have no complaints with the demon. And I am not a demon. If I am the demon, then the demon shouldn’t be evil. A bit chaotic, sure, but who isn’t when they’re 8?”

I happen to agree, so I took ahold of my new son’s hand and walked him over to the bar, as that was the closest place I knew of that had a person who would understand. 

Slowly ringing the bell, I let myself and the kid in. Remy, disinterested as ever, actually raised an eyebrow this time. 

“Who is this young lad you have with you today? Don’t tell me…”

He mimes the intimacy symbol. 

Roman laughs. 

“What? No. I just happened to need a home, and Emile here was happy to give me one.”

Remy’s face looked a bit worried at that. I knew what he was about to say. 

“Em, you know even with your parliamentary funded research, you don’t have a big enough home, or enough money to support a kid! How the heck will you manage?”

I didn’t know, but I knew I would have to try.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, the weather
> 
> Fishbowl-Frankie Cosmos remix

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.


End file.
